What is Coke (Fuel)?

Coke as a fuel was originally pioneered by the Chinese in the 11th century and was introduced in Europe during the 17th century in order to replace wood as a fuel, which was becoming scarce and expensive due to extreme deforestation. The coal's fumes, smoke, and sulfur compounds immediately disqualified it from many applications such as cooking and smelting, and such the coke was primarily used to fuel steam locomotives.

In 1709 Abraham Darby I established a coke-based blast furnace to produce cast iron and found that Coke's strong crushing strength allowed the furnace to become taller, larger, and ultimately burn hotter. This caused a widespread availability of inexpensive iron and is considered one of the major factors leading to the Industrial Revolution.

Coke today is used as a fuel and reducing agent in smelting iron ore in a blast furnace and can be combined with other materials to produce heat shielding materials. Most recently coke was used by NASA to produce the heat shielding on the Mars Pathfinder and NASA plans to utilize coke to produce a new heat sheild for its next generation space craft called Orion. An interesting fact about coke fuel is that many smoke-producing constituents are driven off during the production processes meaning that the coke itself may be burned with little or no smoke. Many other coal products tend to produce much more smoke and environmentally hazardous bi-products.

Many of the volatile components of coal, such as coal-gas and coal-tar, are driven off by baking the coal in an airless furnace at temperatures as high as 2,000 degrees Celsius. Today many American steel companies capture these by-product hydrocarbons and use them to create other products. When steel companies elect not to collect these by-products they employ Non by-product coking furnaces to burn the hydrocarbon gases that are produced.

Today many companies elect to use coke as a source of fuel instead of bituminous coal due to the fact that bituminous coal will produce much smoke when burned. Often times there are conditions which are not suitable for the complete combustion of bituminous coal due to the smoke bi-product, and these companies elect to use coke instead.

Cox Arboretum - My Visit April 2009

If you find yourself with a few spare hours this weekend I would highly recommend a visit to the Cox Arboretum on 6733 Springboro Pike in Dayton, Ohio. From Middletown the Arboretum is roughly a 25 minute drive. Or to give you another idea on the time and distance it's about 3-5 minutes past the Dayton Mall. Simply take the I75 Miamisburgh-Springboro exit, turn right at the bottom of the ramp, then take the fist left onto Spingboro Pike. Head North for just a few minutes and you will see the signs for the Arboretum on your left.

The Arboretum is located on 189 acres of land owned by Five Rivers MetroPark which serves the greater Dayton area. The park includes:

* Shrub Garden with more than 500 different trees and shrubs
* Woodland Wildflower Garden
* Rock Garden
* Water Garden
* Clematis Arbor
* Crabapple Allee
* Stonewall Perennial Garden
* Meditation Garden
* Conifer Collection
* Bell Children's Maze
* Edible Landscape Garden
* Conservation Corner (Prairie, Bird Blind) Praire Plants Brochure
* Butterfly House and Garden (Butterfly House is a seasonal display)

It was two weeks ago when my wife and I were last there. At the time only a few types of flowers were were starting to bloom. I can only imagine there is ten times the color to be enjoyed there now.

If you enjoy walking there are several trails leading through wooded areas and of course the main paved paths around the beautifully kept grounds of the Arboretum. The main paved path takes you past two wonderful ponds full of turtles and giant coy. To make a single loop around the main grounds you should plan on at least a 30 minute walk. If you stop to take in the scenery that time could easily double.

With the weather looking wonderful for this weekend I hope you can give the Cox Arboretum a try. I am sure you will enjoy it.

For more details visit:
http://www.coxarboretum.org/

Or comment and share your favorite springtime pictures on our MiddletownUSA Community Forum.

Madison High School Football: Head Coach Offer Gets 54 Applications

According to MHS Athletic Director Darren Stevens, the newly available head coaching position for the Madison High School football team has received an impressive 54 different applications from hopeful coaches in surrounding areas.

One of the first to apply for the job was Madison's Defensive coordinator Jeff Ripple. He did so shortly after the position was open within the district following former head coach Joel Lauer's resignation which took place earlier this March.

Some of the prospective coaches include Middletown assistants Bret Stubbs and Joel Snivley. Snivley is the Middies' offensive line coach and Stubbs is the defensive coordinator. Others include assistant coach Graham Halcomb from Fenwick, Talawanda assistant Mike Campbell, assistant Matt Hopkins from Eaton, Barak Faulk and Jason Austerman, both assistants at Mason, and Sumit Country Day assistant Sean McCormick. Among all these is also former New Lebanon Dixie James Jewett and former longtime Ross coach Dick Ballard.

"It's going to be a difficult task, narrowing it down." said Stevens who needs to get the list of 54 down to around 10 to 15 applicants who himself and Madison Principle Curtis Philpot are scheduled to interview next week. "It's a nice task to have, though." stated Stevens. "I'd rather have 50 applicants than 3." According to Stevens, the ultimate goal is to "obviously find someone who best fits our program. Football is a big deal in our community and whomever the new coach is needs to understand that its all about the X's and O's."

Philpot and Stevens will sit down this Monday and determine the applicants they will interview. They hope to get the interviews done next week while the chool is on Spring Break. Once that is done they will gather four to five finalists which will be interviewed by a group of eight to ten people. This group will consist of school administrators, at-large community members, members of the area youth sports organization, teachers, and boosters. This group will conduct interviews on the week of April 20 after which they will submit recommendations to Stevens and Philpot, who will in turn make the final decision.

"Our community will play a big part in helping us get the best coach" said Stevens. "They will have a different perspective in the interviews and it will be nice to have other opinions besides me and Curtis." The goal of everyone is to have a new coach in position by the end of April, and with the long list of applicants, I do not think they will have any trouble finding someone to fit perfectly with how the program out at Madison runs.